


Transference

by stultiloquent



Category: DCU (Comics), DCeased (DC Comics), Harley Quinn (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Red Hood/Arsenal (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Comic: DCeased, DCeased Spoilers, Ensemble Cast, Established Relationship, F/F, F/M, Fix-It, Implied Relationships, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Mild Gore, Multi, Past Relationship(s), Survivor Guilt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:34:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27684308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stultiloquent/pseuds/stultiloquent
Summary: Roy Harper begins his morning fiddling with the radio as usual.It has been 1,861 days since the last broadcast; there's no telling how many living heroes are left in the world.--A "DCeased: Dead Planet" fix-it for our favourite archer!
Relationships: Jason Todd/Rose Wilson, Pamela Isley/Harleen Quinzel, Roy Harper/Jason Todd
Comments: 14
Kudos: 54





	Transference

**Author's Note:**

> This story is set at the opening pages of DCeased: Dead Planet #2, so there are some spoilers for everything up until that point. 
> 
> This story also features various ensemble characters. Here's a directory of all mentioned vigilantes and rogues for those who aren't familiar / need a refresher:
> 
>  **(SPOILER WARNINGS APPLY)**
> 
> Roy - Roy Harper, Arsenal  
> "Pammy" / Red - Pamela Isley, Poison Ivy  
> Rose - Rose Wilson, Ravager, Shadowpact member in the DCeased timeline  
> Jason - Jason Todd, Red Hood, Shadowpact member in the DCeased timeline  
> Zee - Zatanna, Shadowpact member in the DCeased timeline  
> John - John Constantine, Shadowpact member in the DCeased timeline  
> Nelson - Kent Nelson, Dr. Fate   
> Mary - Mary Bromfield, Lady Marvel, part of the orphanage evac team that arrived at the Garden with Jason and Rose 5 years prior to the events in "Dead Planet".
> 
>  **Update:** [I've made a playlist for this 'verse](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6SHpQBVk1dpC3XSWlbhWzp?si=lqWXGvgcS8KqlCi8mipuqw)! Have a listen as you read the fic ^_^

Roy Harper begins his morning fiddling with the radio as usual. He cycles through all the FM frequencies, and throws in a few on the AM band as well. When all that greets him is silence, he sighs and lets go of the dial.

It has been 1,861 days since the last broadcast; there's no telling how many living heroes are left in the world.

Often he thinks about his family from another life. Ollie. Dinah. The Titans. Dick. Kori. Jason. Did all of them make it out with the arks? He stares at the needle of the radio dial, but it gives him no answers, staring back at him in continual silence.

He feels that old friend called loneliness creep up on him as he gears up for his patrol duty of the day. Wonders if this is how Michael Collins must have felt, loneliest man in the universe, sitting in the Apollo Lunar Module waiting for the moon's orbit to bring him back to his friends on the other side.

Everyday feels like part of a frozen orbit, now.

Roy allows himself this small moment of vulnerability, takes a deep breath, and schools his expression before stepping out onto the rooftop. There are civilians here depending on him, children that need him to be strong. He peers down at the front yard and smiles when he sees the residents milling about for a few hours of sun and exercise before the hordes outside try again with their next coordinated attack.

Which should be happening right... about... now, judging by the commotion he sees on the horizons. He cinches his binoculars to his belt and swings down to the yard by the zip line.

"Everybody to the bunker!" Heads turn towards him, the faces not so much shocked as they are lined with grim determination as the adults start shepherding children into the building. It's a familiar routine by now.

But that doesn't mean they're not scared.

"Mr. Arsenal?" He feels a small tug on his vest, and comes face to face with a young girl clutching tightly at her teddy bear. "Are the monsters going to get us?"

No, he's not alone, he tells himself as he crouches down and takes Gracie by the hand. Puts on a brave face, and reassures her that they'll be alright. There was a straighter mop of black hair and pudgy cheeks several shades lighter once upon a time, someone else he'd had to chase bad dreams away for. And he can't help but think that _this_ is his second chance - his reason to get up and defend every last day at the end of the world.

And that is the thought that follows him, even as he sees the bright green ball of flame hurtling right towards him and feels the impact of its collision.

Harleen Quinzel woke up late to a furious cacophony of voices outside, drifting up to her and Pammy's shared bedroom at the HQ.

"And I'm telling you, every second we waste I see another death in our likeliest outcome!" That was Rose's voice.

The bed shifted, and Poison Ivy rolled off and onto her feet. She was off in three large strides, leaving Harley to rub at sleep-gummed eyes. Harley smiled. Her Red was always more of a morning person than she was, and Harley knew if Ivy wasn't the one in charge this place would've fallen apart months ago.

By the time Harley was dressed and wandering into the clearing, most of the heated conversation had subsided to a terse standoff. Zatanna was facing down half of the cape community, Jason was tense and holding Rose back, Rose was shaking from her outburst, Mary stood tall and indignant, and the rest of the men stood a few steps back, wary and ready to step in and break up a fight. Except for John, who was just leaning against the side of the Tower, playing idly with his roll-up cigarette case.

Dr. Fate was already stood at his usual spot at the meeting table. Next to him stood Ivy, arms crossed in annoyance.

"Who called this meeting to order?"

"Apologies Miss Ivy," Zatanna began diplomatically, "but the Shadowpact has located another civilian colony, and we would like to ask your permission to bring them here." 

Somebody shifted impatiently in the crowd behind her - Rose, who looked like she was buzzing with anxiety beneath her costume. 

Hurriedly, Zatanna added, "Members of my team believe time is of the essence, as the colony is outnumbered 200 to one, with many more variables that could go wrong the longer we wait."

"What's the estimated population?" Ivy asked.

"60, give or take. One hero in the building, but we don't know if he's still alive since we last checked. The rest are civilians."

"They're children, Ivy," Jason cut to the chase. "It's a house full of children."

Murmurs rippled through his compatriots, each looking as haunted as the last. Harley saw it, the weight they all still carried around five years after the school bus massacre that marked their arrival in the Garden. It's in Jason's deathly stillness. It's in Rose's tight grip on her scabbard, so her hands wouldn't shake. It's in Mary's gritted teeth, so she wouldn't burst into sniffles. The weight of the world on such small, still-growing shoulders.

Harley sighed and knew without a doubt what her answer would be.

Ivy seemed to sense at least a fraction of their guilt and regret as well, which was probably the only reason she bit her tongue. She didn't like being put on the spot and she was even less happy with the way the group had weaponised the threat of children in danger against her. But it was working. Goddammit, was it working.

"Harley, Nelson. A minute, please." Ivy twirled her finger and beckoned the two other members over to the side.

Harley opened her mouth, but Ivy beat her to the punch. "I know Harley... I know." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "But we're almost at maximum capacity, and it'll take another few days before my saplings can secure the East side expansion. We've come too far to risk the children that are already here, depending on me."

"But we made do once, when we took in Zee and her pals. And now we've got so many more friends looking after the place!"

"We do have a precedent for this," Dr. Fate allowed, "and we should be able to manage it this time as well if we ration our resources for a week. As for the evacuees, we could use another hero around here to take the strain off of our defense team." 

"I don't care about the hero," Ivy snapped. Only Rogues roamed the planet these days. If this hero didn't show up with the others in the first year, she doubted he's much of a team player either.

Then again, if he chose to stay behind to fight for a house full of children, there might be more in common between her and this hero than the ones that left the Earth behind.

She was loath to admit this - in fact, she wouldn't so much as allow herself to think this Before. But five years was a long time, and time changes a person. Seeing the way humanity refused to surrender, small acts of rebellion and survival in the face of insurmountable odds that, at their core, were not that different from the struggle her and the Green faced everyday, she'd learnt to care for all children of the Earth, plants and humans, villains and heroes alike.

"Don't worry Red, the hero will obey our rules, or we'll feed him to Frank II and Audrey III," Harley piped up. Nelson shifted uncomfortably next to them, but neither women paid him any mind.

"And if he turns out to be a jerk, all the more reason for us to take the kids off of him."

Rose Wilson often thought her ability to see the future was a boon and a curse. Half the time it saved her ass, but the rest, it only proved that some fates were inevitable. Seeing her dad torn to pieces in real time, moments after she saw him die in her premonitions, wasn't anything she would soon forget. Probably not ever.

When Rose was feeling particularly morbid (which was almost all the time, as she and Jason kept a running tally of the most fucked up jokes they could come up with), she would even rank her experiences on a scale of least to most ill-timed premonitions she's ever gotten. Five years into the apocalypse, that list has grown exponentially.

She didn't always tell Jason about the premonitions that came to pass. She could see the way he still mourned his brothers and his old team some nights, when he gave up sleeping in favour of staring out at the overgrown trees this side of the Gotham Garden, fingers twitching for a cigarette. She used to think death and loss were just natural occurrences for everyone - everyone except her and her family, who all managed to always survive, one way or another. In her line of work, sacrifices were necessary in order to move up in the world. It was a fact of life. The world was cruel, people got hurt, and words were useful insofar as a tool of manipulation. The only way you could ever come out on top was if you always attacked first, and clung like hell to the ones who gave you a leg up. 

Then the world had ended, and suddenly, getting in with the big leagues didn't matter so much anymore. Funny, how it took Armageddon to change her.

Rose was no good with words and vulnerability still, speech was not the language of comfort neither she nor Jason preferred, but the first time she placed a hand on Jason's shaking shoulders, she understood. Some things were better left unsaid. 

And this morning, she woke up to quite possibly the worst premonition she has ever had to keep a secret from Jason. 

After all, how do you tell your boyfriend that you saw his best friend die in a vision? She had crashed the Outlaws' missions on occasion, saw the way they depended on each other and witnessed the trust that belied Jason's ease and fluidity around the archer, and she knew that Roy Harper was irreplaceable in Jason's mind. He was probably one of the reasons keeping Jason up at night too, if she was being honest. And though Roy was one of the subjects Jason never volunteered information on, it didn't take a genius to put two and two together. They were ride or die together, possibly even more than just friends at some point. 

And if there was even the slimmest chance of bringing Roy back to the man she'd somehow fallen in love with... if there was a way for her to give Jason this small bit of peace of mind... she would gladly do it. But until she was sure that the odds played in her favour, that this was one of the futures she could prevent, she would not give Jason false hope only for fate to rip that away from him in the next instant.

So she told him about the children only, called for an emergency meeting, and elected not to name any names. 

One hour and 15 minutes later, she's standing before the Garden's cape community, anxiously awaiting Harley, Ivy, and Dr. Fate to re-emerge and give their verdict.

When the trio return, Ivy takes her place at the meeting table with a severe expression on her face. She chooses her words carefully, when she speaks. "The odds aren't pretty. We just accepted 100 refugees over the weekend, and the Green is still repairing itself after last week's attack."

Rose exchanges a glance with Jason. He gives her hand a reassuring squeeze, though he's not looking any better than she feels.

"But, each and everyone of us stayed behind to defend the Garden, because we all believed in giving a sanctuary for the civilian survivors out there.

"So bring them here. I'll take them in."

No sooner has Ivy finished the sentence, than Zatanna and Constantine have fired up their teleportation portal, and Harley's cheerful "Good luck!" is lost to the mad dash off to the rescue mission. The rest of the Shadowpact scramble after Rose as she launches herself through the portal—

—and slams into Arsenal, pushing him out of the way seconds before a meteoric explosion of green fire incinerates the very spot he'd been standing in.

Roy's first thought after the collision is, _That hit me earlier than I expected._

His second thought is that he's very much still alive and breathing. Then he hears the feminine voice shouting his name.

"—senal? Arsenal, are you with me? Can you get up and fight?" 

White hair, a black and orange mask he would recognise anywhere, and— oh. Oh god, he'd thought he'd never see another familiar face from his old life again. He dares to look beyond her, at the cavalry of masked vigilantes and magic users standing before the swirling, dark mouth of a magical portal. Zatanna. Constantine. Red Hood. _Jaybird_.

No, he's not alone at all.

He grins, and takes Ravager's outstretched arm to hoist himself to his feet. It's game time.

"We've got a fortified base in Gotham and we're taking the civs there," Rose yells over the pandemonium as she blocks one of the anti-living zombies headed for Roy and skewers another with her sword on her next thrust. "Zee and John will clear the way, so when they say go, just round up as many as you can and herd them through the portal, okay?"

"Got it!" Roy stabs two zombies with two spare arrows. He casts a quick glance around the yard, relieved to see most of the kids lined up and disappearing into the portal already. Most of the remaining civilians are adults, fending off the zombies as best as they can to buy the kids some more time, but among them he spots a cloud of dark curls. Gracie. He slides forward on his shin guards, scoops the little girl up in one arm and takes down a few more zombies staggering towards them with a crossbow in his other hand.

"Go, go, go!" Jason yells as he waves the rest of the stragglers through the portal. And that's all Roy hears as he too ushers Gracie in, the ruined yard disappearing like a bad dream behind them.

The clearing they land in is an overwhelming sight filled with nothing but _green_ as far as the eye can see. So preoccupied is Roy with the sheer volume of untamed trees and shrubbery, of _life_ thriving in his surroundings, that he almost misses the shrill voice welcoming them to the Garden. At the centre of the clearing stands a woman dressed in stripes of red and blue - Harley Quinn, he registers. 

"Welcome, welcome!" She says as she waves them closer. "Please head to the garage on your right for decontam, and then check in with our volunteers over at the marquee for your starter kit. We'll assign you your rooms and give you a tour..." 

Roy tunes her out as he wanders off. Once Gracie is in safe hands, he heads off to hose down the blood and guts on his suit as best as he can. By the time he's done, most of the arriving crowd has thinned out. He feels lighter, cleaner than he has felt in months as he steps out into the clearing. The air is sweet with the scent of sunflowers and daffodils, the grass is soft beneath his feet, and as he spots Jason hovering by a table beneath the marquee, he thinks, this is as close to paradise as he'll ever get.

Jason's cleaned up and changed as well, his familiar worn red hoodie standing out in sharp relief against the foliage. There's a wealth of things Roy wants to say, feelings fighting for space in his chest, and he doesn't know where to begin.

"Hey Jaybird," he tries, fumbles, as he approaches the table. "Glad to see you're alive."

Jason pauses when he sees him. He sets the clipboard in his hands down onto the desk, clears his throat, but when he speaks his voice is rough. "Well. It takes more than a couple zombies to keep me in a grave."

Roy manages to keep a smile on his face, if a little shaky. "And you're living it up too. Man look at this place, bet the view's nicer than where I've been."

Jason looks at him for one second longer, then— "Shut the fuck up—" and he's pulling Roy in for a full-bodied embrace. Roy feels his heart kick against his rib-cage and hesitantly, wonderingly, returns the hug. Fingers settle on his nape and curl into his hair, stroking almost subconsciously, and it's that rhythmic feeling that makes the dam break.

"Jaybird. Oh, God, Jaybird." Tears slip down Roy's face, soaking through Jason's hoodie as he buries his nose against his neck. "Thought I'd never see you again."

Jason says nothing, just continues to hold Roy tightly against his chest. He'd been three paces behind Rose when that awful green fire had lit up the yard, and he tries not to think how close they came to losing Roy. If they had arrived three seconds later, if Rose hadn't pushed Roy out of the way...

Jason looks up. Rose _must_ have known, must have seen something more in her visions this morning than she'd told him. He looks over to where she's sitting on a low stone wall, shoulder to shoulder with Harley, and nods. He doesn't have the appropriate words to thank her right now. She nods back anyway, gives him a smile, before her attention is once more diverted away by Harley's never-ending chatter.

Harley nudges Rose with her shoulder. Quietly, she says, "It was never about the children for you, was it?"

Rose gives her a look like, _You know_ , then looks absently back towards where Jason and Roy are standing. They've broken apart, but they're huddling so close together they might as well still be clinging to each other, as if afraid that any second now the other would disappear from their side. But what really strikes Rose is how much lighter and younger Jason looks, like he's just set down one of the various invisible weights he's been carrying around silently, and Rose knows she's made the right decision. 

"No," she says, "it wasn't just the children. But risking everyone just for one man would've been too big of an ask."

Harley's tempted to pry further, questions like, _Which man do you mean?_ or, _Doesn't that hurt?_ poised on the tip of her tongue. But those too are questions she already knows the answer to. 

Still, she chews on them, thinks about what she herself would do for Pammy if the time comes, even as she changes the conversation topic again at breakneck speed.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [Tumblr](https://stvlti.tumblr.com/)


End file.
